The Olympics will sell advertising on the official
Games Web site for the first time ever, according to AD AGE.
The advertising will run on sydney.olympic.org, a site
created by IBM and the Sydney Organising Committee for the
2000 Olympic Games, which open one year from tomorrow (AD
AGE, 9/13). The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Kathryn Kranhold
cites an IBM spokesperson as saying that ad revenue "will go
toward the development and operation of the site." Any
profit from the sales "will be divided between the IOC and
IBM." Most of the ad space on the site "will be offered
only to official Olympic sponsors." However, Kranhold
wonders if corporations which already pay "up to about" $40M
as Olympic sponsors will want to "pay an additional sum of
as much as" $5M to advertise on the site. IEG Sponsorship
Report Editor Lesa Ukman: "You would think as a goodwill
gesture, they would include this for free." N.Y.-based
Phase2Media handles the ad sales (WALL ST JOURNAL, 9/14).
TICKETS. WHO NEEDS TICKETS? The SLOC has said that
"there will be no free tickets" for sponsors to the 2002
Games, but they "will get their first pick of seating and
will take about 13% of the tickets." If tickets go unused,
the SLOC "hopes" that sponsors will donate them to UT
youths. SLOC CEO Mitt Romney said there's "no harm in
asking" the IOC to pay for tickets: "It'll probably be worth
$20 million. They'll probably say no. But it's worth
asking" (AP/WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/13).
NOTES: The city of San Antonio "won high marks" Monday
from the USOC in "most areas of the 2007 Pan American Games
bid process." Officials "praised the government and
volunteer support, along with the organization skills of the
local bid committee." However, questions remain "about
international track and field specifications at Alamo
Stadium" (SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS, 9/14)....NEWSWEEK's Mark
Hosenball writes on new documents pertaining to Atlanta's
bid to host the '96 Games under the header, "A New Olympic
Mess." Documents obtained by NEWSWEEK "reveal the shady
side of the modern Olympic movement -- the crude lobbying
tactics that lie behind the site-selection process by the
[IOC]" (NEWSWEEK, 9/20 issue). In Atlanta, Melissa Turner
writes that Atlanta's bid for the '96 Olympics "is quickly
deteriorating into a titillating scandal of sex, lies and
scholarships" (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 9/14).
